This is a re-edit in Nik Silver Efex Pro. I lost my notes on what I did to the previous image, but not a problem as I want to make this image a bit more dramatic. I am talking about the image here, below this text.

The original black and white edit

Yes, it is the one immediately above. Yes, this one. The one at the top is the new version I’m writing about. The one below is the previous edit.

Which do you prefer?

And for completeness on this post here is the colour image which you can find in my photography portfolio.

The colour portfolio image

Ok glad I got that sorted. So this is what I did in Nik Silver Efex Pro to the colour image.

Presets

Neutral – ok.

Underexposed – too dark.

Overexposed – too light.

High Contrast Harsh – too harsh.

Well I have to say that the descriptions of the presets are pretty accurate!

Sorry back to the presets.

High contrast smooth – interesting look but maybe not.

High structure harsh – bang – a definite contender.

High structure smooth – not quite as good but still good.

Low Key 1 – no.

Push process (n+1.5).

What is N+1.5? I have no idea and thinking about it don't really care. It does not work for this image.

Push process (n+3) – this does not work either.

Full dynamic harsh – one of my favourite presets for architectural photography and a definite contender here.

Full dynamic smooth – this preset gives a really interesting effect. Another possibility.

Full spectrum. Looks ok.

Full Spectrum inverse. Another boom moment when I click this one.

Fine art process – looks good.

Fine art (high key framed) – this is ok too (after I turn off the frame that is).

And finally,

Full contrast and structure. This preset looks pretty good too.

So as you can see there are quite a few presets that work for this image.

So what I do is scroll back and see if something jumps out at me.

Excuse me for a minute while I do this.

I still could not decide so next changed the view on screen to having two images. On the left is the image in the neutral preset, with the other presets appearing on the right as I scroll through them. The neural preset is the starting point, and looks pretty good as it is.

I chose Full Spectrum Inverse in the end. The main reason being that that the building is already standing out with this preset.

Time to move one.

Filters

The green filter gave the image a bit more pop. The yellow, orange and red filters just had the same impact but more of it. Too much. And the blue filter did not work at all.

Vignette

Lens falloff 3. I always envisaged applying a heavy vignette to this image. And that is what I did.

Finishing touches

Just to push things a little bit more I increased the dynamic brightness to 38%.

And that is that.

I like this image a lot. It starts of course with an interesting composition. All photography does. Well not all but most.